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Show Twentieth Ward Water. 8alt Lake City, March 31st, 1375. Editors Salt Lake Herald: The citizens above the Twentieth ward water ditch aro placed outside of complaint they cannot complain of paying tuxes and having no water, and their best remedy now is to consolidate con-solidate the means that would have been paid into the city treasury, place tho amount in the hands of one ol their neighbors a business man, ol course, and have an artesian well Bunk to give them the aqueous fluid. This seems to me the plan the city council should have adopted, because there is no technicality in our charter which exempts a properly holder from paying taxes simply because there is no water for use; and, also, if those residents ever should get water how can the council justly impose the taxes on them again ? They will not have to thank the corporation for the water tho citizens obtained it themselves, them-selves, and if once exempt from taxation taxa-tion they should always be from the same logical stand-point. The remitting of the taxes brings up another phase of the matter. The settler? above the ditch hod a positive knowledge at the time of location that there was no water to be had, and, I consequently, paid a very much smaller figure for the ground than land in other parts of tho city where water was get-at-able would have cost. Thousands of dollars have been spent in bringing the mountain streams to the doors of those who can use them, and hundreds of dollars more are paid annually to keep those stream 8 from breaking away and running run-ning into other channels. It was only last year that the First, Second and Tenth wards spent nearly two thousand thous-and dollars to keep Emigration creek from all going down in the big field; and every year the Eleventh ward has to spend large sums in trying to keep some water which comes from Red Butte running into their gardensjand almost every year the residents below the water ditch in the Twentieth ward have to spend many dollars to repair their canal, and not one cent of taxes is remitted on account of these perpetual per-petual drains on our pockets. Another item: In buying property below the water line how much per centage is placed, and baa to be paid, on the value of property because water can be got? Should not this also be remitted? One person is legally le-gally entitled to the "remitting" process pro-cess as much as another! 1 Can the council legally do this thing? Certain buqib of money must be paid every year to keep the municipal muni-cipal wheels moving, and if a large number of persons are exempt from paying will not the burden grow heavier on those who have to pay? Cannot these latter tax-payers legally resist paying while eome o there do not pay? All the residents use the streets and sidewalk? and need the police to keep good order, and can one be .excused from paying more than another? The city tax is not a water tax exclusively! Our city will grow and water must be obtained to keep it in health and beauty. Taxes must be paid and water got, even if the Sevier has to bo tapped for it. Citizen. |